The Hand That Feeds Us

...1 No...

...Fifty campesinos were arrested and the blockade was called off after two days...

...logic which enters into opposition with that of the dominant system of accumulation...

...And the 'official' current doesn't accept that this is an Indian nation...

...There has clearly been a loss in well-being and the country's food security may be at risk," states former NEP adviser Juan Antonio Morales...

...Morales concludes that national borders were opened too suddenly to foreign imports without taking due consideration of Bolivia's COCA LEAVES: THE ONLY CASH CROP HE COCA GROWERS UNIONS HAVE BEEN AT the forefront of efforts to turn U.S.-promoted coca eradication campaigns into real alternative development programs...

...Juan Antonio Morales, "Impacto de los Ajustes," pp...

...In the end, the people themselves will decide...

...Exchange rather than sale of produce is still widespread...

...Another competitor with campesino producers is socalled humanitarian aid in the form of food donations, mainly from the United States, equivalent to 30% of national agricultural production...

...If these people are really so poor, why do they waste time and money getting drunk and dancing around...

...8 Eighty per cent of these Bolivians are crowded onto small farms in these altiplano and valley areas which cover only 35% of national territory.' Pressure on the land has grown progressively since the 1953 Agrarian Reform, which did away with feudal estates that had kept peasants in semi-slavery, but also further eroded pre-Columbian systems of communal landholding, transforming farmers into small property-owners...

...2 (MarchApril 1985), and "Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Lowlands," Vol...

...Now, the National Population Council estimates it to be closer to one half.13 Many migrants move to the Chapare region to the northeast of Cochabamba, where 80% of Bolivia's coca leaf is grown, most of which ends up as cocaine.' 4 "I left my village because there wasn't anything to eat," explains SebastiAn Felipe, a coca farmer who lives a mile down a muddy rutted path from the Chapare town of Villa Sajta...

...Economic consultants to the Bolivian government have had to admit the model's failure to surpass or even maintain previous levels of food production...

...But we can't allow such doubts to stand in the way of native peoples in working out their own future...

...6 This feat is achieved in the face of daunting obstacles: scant access to credits and modern technology, lack of roads and transportation and harsh climatic conditions, all giving rise to abysmally poor living conditions and low productivity...

...Altiplano campesino union leader Jacinto Huarachi says that half of the two hundred families in his village have left in the past five years, heading either for the city or for the Chapare...

...Responding to this threat, representatives of producers from all over Bolivia resolved to defend their lands and livelihood, with force if necessary...

...4 No...

...approach is the proverbial "carrot and stick": only after a certain acreage has been eradicated will development plans be implemented...

...1987...

...Since 1985, the flow has continued, as state policies erode already precarious living standards for farming families...

...DIRECO [a government agency] came to check that we had really taken out the.coca, but then they took almost three months to get us the compensation we'd been promised...

...9. For geographical distribution of Bolivia's population, see CONAPO, "INFOPAQ...

...There are no main points which awaken the interest of peasant farmers...

...The words ofa coca producer or militant union leader...

...For the villagers of Rio Palca, the ritual is less a celebration than a plea to natural forces, their only hope in a constant struggle for survival...

...Peasant Farmers (CSUTCB) but in the Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB), the umbrella organization which unites all workers...

...6. Ibid...

...I and 2. 11...

...military officials...

...It remains to be seen whether this style of development will succeed in penetrating the hard shell of the New Economic Policy...

...Eradication programs did experience a boom in late 1989 and early 1990, when crops covering a record area of 20,000 acres were destroyed following a substantial price fall widely attributed to the drug crackdown in Colombia, where 70% of Bolivia's cocaine paste is processed into cocaine...

...The Hand That Feeds Us 1. Nak'araku is actually the Quechua word for this ritual, which in Aymara is called wilancha...

...If we give them what they want, what guarantees do we have that they will eradicate...

...and the fiesta, which strengthens ethnic identity and bonds of mutual obligation, ensuring group survival...

...2. 13...

...Besides, our land was being broken into smaller plots as the number of people in our community grew...

...The campesinos are trying to hold the United States to ransom," insists an AID employee...

...insistence, of the Bolivian military in the anticoca campaign...

...For discussion of such indigenous social mechanisms, see: Xavier Alb6, Kitula Libermann, Armando Godinez, Francisco Pifarr6, Para Comprender las Culturas Rurales en Bolivia (La Paz: Ministerio de Educaci6n y Cultura/CIPCA/UNICEF, 1989...

...We used to work much more around organizational issues," recalls Antonio Aramayo of Qhana...

...By the end of 1990, prices were rising once again and eradication had dropped off...

...The last national census in 1976 found that two thirds of Bolivians lived on the land...

...The 33-day trek culminated in a historic meeting between highland and lowland indigenous peoples too small to ensure family subsistence from farming alone...

...A 1989 United Nations study found that more than half of all Bolivians live in "relative poverty," with insufficient income to cover their basic needs...

...NEP theoreticians claim they expected Bolivian farming to respond favorably to the injection of "healthy competition" from abroad...

...Weeks later, when details of the accord were revealed by the press, Paz Zamora's government admitted that military involvement was -a possibility," a "hypothesis," to be put into action only in the case of threats to national security, and never with the participation of U.S...

...Alvaro Aguirre Badani, Jos6 Luis PNrez Ramifrez, Carlos Villegas Quiroga, NPE: Recesidn Econ6mica (La Paz: CEDLA, 1990), p. 99...

...Growers unions warn that U.S.-sponsored militarization will increase human rights violations VULUMbAXXV, NUMIStK I (JULY IV91)Bolivia outside the city between leaders from highland and lowland ethnic cultures...

...Agriculture accounts for 22.4% of Bolivia's gross national product...

...The country's native majority has been largely ignored by the select group-white, urban and strongly identified with Western values and lifestyles-who have traditionally held political power...

...Miguel Urioste F. de C., Resistencia Campesina: Efectos de la Political Econ6mica Neoliberal del Decreto Supremo 21060 (La Paz: CEDLA, 1989), pp...

...Evo Morales, headofthe largestgrowersunions, was unimpressed, "As long as the government insists on involving the military, we will shut down the roads...

...For a political history of Bolivia from 1952-1982, see James Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins, (London: Verso, 1984...

...Other crops can't compete with coca, not just because of its price but because it produces four yearly harvests, even in poor soils, and is easy to transport...

...They were removed...

...Coca growers have little faith in government assurances that the military will only pursue drug traffickers and leave them alone...

...He was found dead, apparently a suicide...

...Almost half are bilingual, learning Spanish after a native mother tongue, while 5% of men and 10% of women speak no Spanish at all.' Most indigenous Bolivians live in rural areas in conditions of extreme poverty...

...But most shoppers will tell you that foreign produce is better and cheaper than Bolivian varieties...

...Such food aid has effectively lowered agricultural prices still further, especially in the case of wheat...

...Then, a Miami Herald article accused both the interior minister and the head of' the Bolivian police of involvement in drug trafficking...

...2; Vol...

...If you like, it's a more realistic approach...but deep down, it's our utopian vision, our belief in new forms of social struggle, which give us life and hope...

...Even though I've taken out my coca, I will continue to fight for the rest of my compafieros who are still growers," insists Rodrfguez, "and to pressure the government to fulfill its promises...

...3. For additional data and discussion of Bolivia's indigenous population, see: XavierAlb6et al., Para Comprender, p. 18;Consejo Nacional de Poblaci6n, "INFOPAQ: Paquete Informativo sobre la Poblaci6n Boliviana" (La Paz, CONAPO, 1989...

...6 7 -69...

...8.Proyecto PNUD RLA/86/004, "La Lucha contra la Pobreza en Bolivia: Consideraciones Sectoriales para una Estrategia Nacional" (La Paz: PNUD, April 1989...

...2. Such traditional Andean fiestas embody a social mechanism which enables better-off community members to redistribute part of their surplus production...

...The October ritual of fiak'araku-the feeding of the earth with animal blood-takes on a special intensity in this highland community where almost the only vegetation is the spiky ch'illa shrub which dots the barren landscape.' The potato seed stores, pits dug out of the hard ground, are empty...

...Less than ten years ago, during the Garcia Mezadictatorship, sectors of the Bolivian military were heavily implicated in the cocaine trade...

...The 'hypothesis" suddenly became a reality...

...trainers had already entered the country on April 4, unbeknownst to Congress...

...A November 1990 report by the U.S...

...Faustino Rico Toro, a key figure in the 1980-1981 druglinked dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza, was appointed to head the force...

...The union decides everything in the colonization zones, from resolving conflicts to determining the size of plots...

...SR The enemy: A poor peasant family arrested earlier this year by the Bolivian anti-drug police for working in a cocaine paste factory...

...Our petitions are supposed to rally the movement, but in reality, this isn't happening," said a campesino leader in a recent forum...

...Migration picked up with the 1983-1984 droughts and floods which devastated large areas...

...2 (April, 1988...

...No wonder they can't get ahead...

...Leaders vow they will continue to struggle...

...2 For some, native ceremonies are picturesque remnants of the past glory of Andean peoples...

...The land just can't support my family...

...Because we lack roads and pack animals, we have to carry 60 pounds of bananas about 10 miles to market on our back," says Celestino Mamani...

...Even potatoes, the staple of the highlands and the main crop grown by altiplano farmers, are brought in by the truckload from neighboring Peru...

...They have gone on marches and lost lives to demand basic services, infrastructure and adequate technical assistance...

...In the past, peasant demands tended to be global calls for society-wide structural change...

...Should there be only one line of national development, or various economic systems within a multinational state...

...4 Structural adjustment policies aimed at increasing export income and freeing currency for foreign debt payments postpone basic needs and human rights until some future moment when economic growth will, in theory, start to trickle down to those on the lower rungs of society...

...While the geographical isolation of native communities like Rio Palca perpetuates their lack of access to the benefits of modern society, it also helps people maintain ways of life where culture and economy are part of an integrated whole...

...For Guaranf leader Evelio Arambisa, "the themes of land rights, territory, native authorities and economic organization are all tied up with the concept of selfdetermination...

...Government promises to sanction the marchers' territorial rights have, as yet, to be fulfilled...

...But the march stands out in the year's events as an affirmation of ethnic strength...

...What were we supposed to live on...

...Valentin Guti&rrez, leader of the Colonizers' Federation of Tropical Carrasco, counters, "We've heard so many promises that have never been fulfilled...

...The most impoverished are small farmers and indigenous rural workers...

...For some institutions that work closely with the rural population, the key for the future lies in building economic strategies to give peasant communities a firmer base on which to mobilize for the defense of their rights...

...others scorn the elaborate rituals as vain superstitions which have no place in a would-be modern society...

...Ibid...

...In an Andean-wide meeting of coca producers held in La Paz at the end of March, Bolivian growers heard their Peruvian counterpartsdescribe escalating violence provoked by the presence of army and guerrilla groups...

...We agreed to pull up our coca plants because the price had gone down so much...

...The direct ways he mentions include investment, irrigation, education, roads and access to credit.' 9 Even the government's UDAPE concludes that manipulation of prices and costs alone can have little effect on productivity where agriculture has not yet been modernized...

...No, President Jaime Paz Zamora speaking to the Bolivian press in May 1990, days after he signed an agreement with the U.S...

...First, Col...

...wheat...

...SOMEWHAT UNJUSTLY TERMED "SUBSIStence" farmers, peasant families actually produce two thirds of the food supply for the country's 6.4 million inhabitants...

...Miguel Urioste, Resistencia Campesina, p. 23...

...For us, coca eradication without development means hunger and misery...

...Escalating rural transport costs cut into farmers' already meager profits...

...Families invest in two things: livestock, which can be sold in an emergency...

...1 No...

...Antonio Aramayo, director of the rural development center Qhana, is less sanguine...

...Between 1985 and 1987, transport charges rose three times as much as the price of potatoes...

...6 A stroll through the markets of any Bolivian city makes it clear there is no shortage of food on sale...

...0 Each subsequent generation brought new land divisions, and today most plots are Trinidad BRAZIL VOLUME XXV, NUMBER I (JULY 1991) 31Eight hundred native people from the tropical north marched to La Paz "For Territory and Dignity" last year...

...The mills are full of U.S...

...The rest of Bolivia's coca comes from the Yungas region outside La Paz, where the leaf is mainly grown for traditional consumption: chewing, tea or ritual use...

...In 1991, 80% of Bolivia's wheat requirements will be supplied through donations and imports.'" "By the time we get our harvest in, the price will be rock bottom," complains a farmer from the Panning for gold in Tipuani: free-lance mining in fields and rivers is a source of income for many peasants Cochabamba valley...

...In April, Alberto Rabaza, head of the Oruro special police antidrug unit, was accused of facilitating the transport of precursor chemicals for use in cocaine processing...

...Producers generally agree that the decision to eradicate is an individual choice...

...24, 1990...

...Bolivia is the most indigenous nation in the Americas: 65% of the population is Aymara or Quechua and 2.5% belongs to some 40 lowland ethnic groups...

...Fordata on Bolivia's process of urbanization, see CONAPO, "INFOPAQ...

...A million more suffer "critical poverty," having so few resources that even when all these are spent on food, they cannot satisfy minimal nutritional requirements...

...The coca growers union is the key authority in these areas...

...Within the CSUTCB, other changes have become apparent since the introduction of the NEP...

...The government's idea is to take away their land once and for all and complete the denial of indigenous territorial rights which began with the Conquest...

...Campesinos: the National Majority," Bolivia Bulletin, Vol...

...VOLUME XXV, NUMBER 1 (JULY 1991)33 Despite government attempts to convince Bolivians that the impact of military involvement will be minimal, many are deeply concerned by the prospect of a more powerful military with a mandate to combat the drug trade...

...p. 100...

...Indigenous peoples exemplify the rational use of natural resources in the face of ecological damage caused by exploitative business interests," points out Zulema Lehm of Beni department's regional development center...

...Dominique Temple, Estructura Comunitaria y Reciprocidad: del Quid-pro-quo Hist6rico al Economicidio (La Paz: HISBOL/Chitakolla, 1989...

...The U.S...

...by November they are to train 1,000 Bolivian soldiers...

...Prices have been lowered not just by the influx of legally imported goods but by contraband, as increasing numbers of unemployed city dwellers cross the borders to bring back cheaper foreign goods...

...LF T HE AUTHORS OF THE NEP ARE BY NO means optimistic about the prospects for rural development...

...Even when the price is low we get more for coca...

...Women carrying children in shawls on, their backs collect water at the only source: a dry river bed where they scrape the mud and wait for a small pool to form...

...Unidad de AnAlisis de Politicas Econ6micas (UDAPE), "Anmlisis del Impacto de las Politicas Macroecon6micas y Factores Extemos en el Sector Agricola," in El hnpacto de la NPE, p. 170...

...Recent years have seen a growing exodus of farmers who make permanent homes away from their native communities...

...5. See "Food and Agriculture...

...Indigenous social organizations have evolved numerous strategies to resist and coexist with the values of a powerful minority...

...When new colonizers arrive," explains leader Victor Jim6nez, "the first thing they do is form a local branch which then approaches the regional union for membership...

...The farmers of Rio Palca, an Aymara community in Northern Potosf, are offering a sacrifice to the Pachamama, the earth mother, in the hope that she will revive their parched crops and bring fertility to their land and people...

...The ;government threatened to use force to prevent a campesino road blockade called for June 17...

...Historian Tania Melgar of Trinidad's coordinating body for solidarity with indigenous groups believes "the alternative of indigenous development does exist, although some are skeptical about this possibility...

...7. Juan Antonio Morales, "Impacto de los Ajustes Estructurales en la Agricultura CampesinaBoliviana," in El lmpacto de la NPEen el SectorAgropecuario (La Paz: COTESU/MACA/ILDIS, 1990), p. 65...

...And the negotiations involved are so long and wearing...

...Coca's contribution increased from 8% of the agricultural sector's net value in 1980 to 19% in 1988...

...What they basically stand for is a reordering of society, and in this sense their proposals represent a political challenge to the model...

...14...

...Paco Rodriguez and his family were among those who decided to eradicate...

...All our plans to buy dairy cattle and plant fruit trees were put on hold...

...7 "Our main problem is that our goods sell so cheaply, we can't compensate labor costs," explains a farming union leader from the valley province of Mizque...

...Since March, the special police forces in charge of fighting drugs have been rocked by charges of corruption...

...4, (Aug...

...Many indigenous communities already manage their own economies...

...Some migrate for seasonal work in neighboring countries...

...At that time, price controls gave rise to a flourishing contraband trade and subsidized food disappeared over the border to benefit Bolivia's five neighbors...

...Our history and culture, which form the starting point for a new society built on the basis of who we really are...

...Since 1985, demands have become increasingly specific petitions to the state for attention to rural needs...

...The Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB) called a nationwide strike April 9 to protest the militarization of antidrug efforts...

...But instead of being stimulated to produce more in order to keep pace with the influx of cheap imports, peasant farmers simply back out of the market, unable to compete on such unequal terms...

...They also indicate a certain inability to synthesize essential points which could serve to mobilize the movement and bring real pressure to bear on the government...

...Now we're paying more attention to campesino-run economic enterprises which can provide communities with greater security and capacity to negotiate with the model...

...174-175...

...Since we don't have our own transport, we depend on middlemen, and they just say: 'Your roads are no good, I can hardly get my truck through here...

...UDAPE, "Analisis del Impacto," pp...

...A MODEL WHICH PROMOTES FOOD HAND- outs and conspires against production demonstrates a strange logic, quite at odds with indigenous economies and ways of life...

...Stores and street stalls are piled high with fruit, a wide range of fresh vegetables, carcasses of meat, cartons of eggs and stack upon stack of packaged, canned and processed goods...

...Campesinos, the National Majority," Bolivia Bulletin (La Paz), Vol...

...Soon they will set off on a two-day pilgrimage to join communities from the surrounding area at the shrine of Panacachi...

...Undue emphasis on the aspect of prices," warns Morales, "can breed neglect of direct ways to stimulate agriculture...

...But I would still say that the union has some power to negotiate with the government...

...But first they will eat and drink in the house of their preste, this years's sponsor who confirms his status as leader by sharing his harvest with the entire community...

...Twelve U.S...

...These demands may include as many as 40 separate items, reflecting a steady dispersion and atomization of the campesino movement...

...During the debate which raged in the Bolivian Congress this spring, the defense minister inadvertently revealed that some U.S...

...While national agriculture-already grossly handicapped by lack of technology, infrastructure, investment and credits-is left to fend for itself, Bolivia's neighbors continue subsidizing their farmers, just as the United States, Canada and Europe do even in the face of immense agricultural surpluses...

...Today the advisers number 56...

...Certain campesino sectors will lose their lands," admits the Agrarian Reform Commission...

...There we are paid three bolivianos [about 75 cents] for the bananas...

...But they also insist that the wealth generated through the different ecosystems must be socially redistributed, a Could indigenous cultural values be translated into an alternative model for development...

...Slogans are no good any more...

...Newcomers push further into the Chapare's thick undergrowth, as much as 15 miles from the highway...

...To avoid the social tensions generated by such shortages, the NEP lifted controls on many imports and opened the borders to foreign goods, guaranteeing abundant food supplies at prices regulated only by the forces of supply and demand...

...The 'official' Bolivia is quite apart from the 'real' Bolivia," comments agrarian economist and left-wing congressional deputy Miguel Urioste...

...Could the cultural values of indigenous peasant farmers be translated into an alternative model for development...

...military trainers and 90 tons of armaments arrived in the eastern city of Santa Cruz that day...

...a La Paz bank cashier complained to me recently...

...44-47...

...Urban consumers welcome the impressive array of goods on sale which provides a welcome contrast to the long lines, sparsely laden stalls and empty shelves of VOLUME XXV, NUMBER I (JULY 1991) 33Bolivia 1982-1985...

...On agrarian reform, see chs...

...Solidarity, reciprocity and sharing of available resources-central features of Bolivia's indigenous cultures-are values which the dominant society would prefer to dismiss as obsolete...

...At the Ninth International Conference on Drug Control, retired Bolivian general and current commander of the special police anti-drug forces, Elfas Gutirrez, admitted that cocaine traffickers have penetrated the armed forces...

...I No...

...A Western-style model such as the New Economic Policy (NEP) has singular effects when imposed on the 'real' Bolivia, where almost half the labor force still works on the land and 95% of agricultural producers are peasant farmers...

...The March for Territory and Dignity culminated in a historic meeting on a mountain pass The coca producers' biggest fear at present is the involvement, at U.S...

...Peasant farmers tend to opt for minimizing risk, not maximizing profit...

...He resigned after the United States threatened an aid cutoff...

...I won't pay you any more for your produce-take it or leave it...

...Agency for International Development (AID) budget allocations for development in the Chapare have been only partially spent...

...Congress Government Openment Operations Committee warned that militarization could lead to increased violence and armed insurgency...

...10...

...This is an inevitable, if painful, consequence of development...

...4. See "Food and Agriculture," Bolivia Bulletin, Vol...

...Prestige and authority are won through generosity and commitment to the group, not through personal accumulation or exploitation of the labor of others...

...Small producers subsidize living standards for the urban population by providing food cheaply, even in the face of increased taxation on the goods they themselves must purchase...

...In 1988, national treasury funds provided only nine million bolivianos ($3.9 million) to the Ministry of Agriculture, equivalent to 0.55% of all resources allocated.2' One third of the total budget for agriculture was provided by external funding, indicating a corresponding loss of national autonomy in policy making and suggesting that multilateral bankers give it greater priority than the Bolivian government...

...This is our great wealth," asserts Antonio Aramayo, director of Qhana...

...But as Aymara and Quechua communities are often adjacent in this area, ceremonial names tend to overlap...

...This is a major reason why U.S...

...2 " Such conclusions are somewhat inconvenient, since the NEP rules out the increases in public spending which structural support to agriculture would demand...

...We've never received any technical assistance and there are no development projects ." REPORT ON THE AMERICAS C a a S a J4incapacity to compete with subsidized goods produced in more favorable conditions...

...For months on end, some 25,000 families leave the highlands and valleys to work on tropical sugar and cotton plantations.' 2 "We are treated worse than animals, crowded together in sheds without decent food or health care," says C6sar L6pez of the cotton workers...

...Growers transport their coca on bicycles or on their backs to the roadside where it is sold to middlemen...

...What we want is autonomy to govern ourselves and define our own economic future...

...Coca growers are now a strategic force in the labor movement, not just in the National Confederation of REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 32ENTER THE GREEN BERETS 4 INDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL WE permit a militarization of the struggle against drug trafficking...

...Instead of getting ahead, we campesinos are getting poorer all the time...

...Our local branch organized everyone in the community to build the school and road," says Jim6nez...

...Many who have eradicated have had to return to their places of origin, but they can't survive there either...

...government permitting the participation of Bolivia's armed forces in anti-cocaine efforts...

...Olivia Harris, Economia Etnica (La Paz: HISBOL, 1987...

...After 500 years of domination, the weakness and dependency of the Bolivian state contrast with the strength of the country's native traditions...

...In the midst of drought and deprivation, the fiesta bursts through with the raucous sound of pan pipes, from musicians who kneel and play beneath a tattered banner...

...Quoted in Miguel Urioste, Resistencia Campesina, p. 138...

...Although the adjustment policies and liberalization implemented since August 1985 have been healthy and positive for the economy as a whole," states a report by the government's economic analysis unit UDAPE, '"these policies have had less clear effects for the agricultural sector...(which) still remains in a state of depression...

...El Dia (Santa Cruz), Jan...

...A third of small producers leave their farms for part of each year to work in the cities, coca fields or lowland harvests...

...1, 1991...

...3 No...

...I still have a home in my village, but I doubt that I will ever move back there...

...We have suffered repeated abuses at the hands of anti-drug police-stealing our things, breaking into our homes in the middle of the night, beating us up," says coca union leader Valentin Gutierrez, "We believe the military will only be worse...

...But in a country like Bolivia, the "lower rungs" make up most of the social ladder...

...What REPORT ON THE AMERICAS British writer and researcher Susanna Rance is a long-time resident of La Paz...

...Presencia (La Paz), Sept...

...30this country needs is hard work and initiative...

...While widespread public opposition has thus far prevented blatant military occupation of the zone, observers expect the armed forces to begin anti-drug operations in the Chapare within a few months...

...What the movement needs isjust two or three concrete issues to organize around...

...The continuing vitality of Bolivia's native peoples was clearly displayed last August when 800 members of ethnic groups from the tropical lowlands marched for 33 days from the cattle town of Trinidad to the administrative capital of La Paz to demand official protection for their native territories, threatened by lumber companies and cattle ranchers...